1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to electrosurgical instruments used for open and endoscopic surgical procedures for sealing or fusing tissue. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to systems and methods for limiting the number of times an electrosurgical instrument can be used.
2. Background of the Related Art
Energy-based tissue treatment is well known in the art. Various types of energy (e.g., electrical, ultrasonic, microwave, cryogenic, thermal, laser, etc.) are applied to tissue to achieve a desired result. Electrosurgical instruments have become widely used by surgeons in recent years. By and large, most electrosurgical instruments are hand-held instruments, e.g., electrosurgical pencils, electrosurgical forceps, endoscopic instruments such as monopolar forceps, bipolar forceps or a combination monopolar/bipolar forceps, ultrasonic hand tools, microwave probes. Such electrosurgical instruments are electrically coupled to an external electrosurgical generator. Alternatively, the electrosurgical instruments may be portable and include a battery powered electrosurgical generator.
Electrosurgical instruments have a limited number of uses before they need to be discarded. Reusing the electrosurgical instrument after it has reached its limited number of uses may lead to complications during electrosurgery.